Advanced Autopilot

[Dynon]

A clarification on the last comment - the 696 doesn't have approach guidance, so you can't fly real approaches via the AP with 6.0. However, it does have a vertical planning feature, which will generate a vertical vnav needle on SkyView. Anything that outputs vertical guidance that is displayed by SkyView can be followed by the VNAV feature of the 6.0 AP upgrades, so you do get some vertical AP coupling in that sense.

 

[bkthomps]

does that work with the VNAV Planning on the 430w/530w?

I could see how that'd be useful even if not doing an approach, who is testing all this stuff? how does one sign up to be a tester?

 

[Dynon]

No, the 430 only outputs vertical guidance information when it's on a real ILS or gps approach with vertical guidance, so nothing we can do to follow the vertical navigation planning computer in that device.

 

[Juvat]

How about the Garmin GTN-650? Does the same limitation apply as in the case of the 430?

 

[st8frm]

Will the advanced autopilot have the ability to hold a specific Airspeed? Example: On takeoff, have aircraft hold Vy until reaching selected altitude.

 

[dynonsupport]

Yes, the Advanced AP includes IAS hold and sequencing, so it can climb (or descend) to an altitude at an IAS and will level off when arriving.

 

[airguy]

Yes, the Advanced AP includes IAS hold and sequencing, so it can climb (or descend) to an altitude at an IAS and will level off when arriving.

Dynon - any chance a future update could include the ability to set this to a calculated TAS instead of IAS? I'm thinking particularly of high-altitude flutter limits, which is dependent upon TAS rather than IAS.

I suppose I can see both sides of that argument though, you want the Autopilot to function on IAS since that is what stall speed is based on, and that's going to be encountered much more frequently (one would hope) than the flutter limits.

 

[dynonsupport]

No plans to allow users to set TAS (mach?) numbers as speed holds. Sorry. Can you find any piston GA AP that will do a TAS hold?

This isn't an AP that has autothrottles like a jet up at cruise where you can set BOTH a speed and altitude. En-route, you're going to have an altitude set, and it's up to the pilot to choose an appropriate power to manage speed in level flight.

I can't imagine more than a few GA planes that can exceed VNE (TAS or IAS) in climb, so you are asking about using IAS for a descent. That's a theoretically possible scenario, but just like it's up to the pilot to not descend too fast for TAS flutter when flying by hand, they need to choose speeds as well. Also, you don't have a TAS VNE indicator on the EFIS when flying by hand so you need to be aware of these limits mentally all the time if your plane is flutter limited while being below your IAS VNE.

The AP avoids stalls and VNE no matter what you set your IAS too. The second rule of the AP is ALWAYS do not over or underspeed. The first rule is that thy AP shall not exceed G limits. It's not until the 4th or 5th rule that what you asked for matters

Also, IAS holds are generally used for climbs in order to manage engine cooling, and IAS matters for cooling, not TAS. Generally, VS descents are used to prevent ears popping since a fixed TAS would create a pretty weird descent profile.

Anyway, an interesting idea that we won't say never to, but it isn't on the list right now.